Clean Bandit chat about new Game Of Thrones style video

This week sees the release of Clean Bandit’s Come Over FT Stylo G, the fifth single from the classical crossover quartet’s Official Albums Chart Top 5 debut Clean Eyes. We sat down with violinist Neil Amin-Smith to talk film school, extreme weather and Game Of Thrones…

How did the collaboration with Stylo G on Come Over come about?

Someone played us one of his older tracks and we’d actually really wanted to work with a Jamaican vocalist for quite a while. I think we first had the idea in about 2012, when we were talking to some other producers, but it never came about. Then we had the instrumental and the opportunity came up to do something with Stylo and it was just perfect.

The Come Over video is pretty impressive, is it true you shot and directed it yourselves?

Jack (Patterson – bass guitar, keyboard) shot some of [the video] and directed it. He’s the brains behind the video, well behind it all, but in particular the video. He spent a year at film school. For most people that probably wouldn’t have been enough to start making incredible music videos but he’s a bit of a geek. Geek and/or genius! He’s just kind of self-taught since then. Now the operation has become bigger, he’s more of a director.

The video is shot in the Arctic Desert of Svalbard near the North Pole, Morocco and the Sahara Desert. What was it like shooting in all those amazing places?

It was actually pretty crazily intense because we had to fit shooting in to a really busy few weeks. We had to come straight off stage at a festival in the UK and then get on a flight. I think there was a day when I took seven flights! On the day we travelled to Svalbard we had some hairy moments. Because the weather is so extreme in Svalbard our plane couldn’t land, it tried twice and missed the runway both times and we had to turn back! And then we had the complete opposite experience in Morocco where it was 40 degrees in the desert, so it was a crazy couple of weeks.

Some people have likened the video to something from Game of Thrones, do you guys watch the show?

A bit, I watched the first series. It definitely wasn’t intentional but it’s true. I think Grace (Chatto - cello, vocals) in all her furs with the barren landscape is quite Khaleesi!

What’s next for Clean Bandit?

We’ve got our first ever Brixton Academy show coming up in October. We’ve supported people there before and even doing that was incredible. It’s going to be insane to take over that stage for the night.

Come Over FT Stylo G is out now.